Last week, Turnagain Marine Construction reached out to members of the Haines Borough administration and assembly asking for payment on an outstanding invoice for work it did developing a replacement for the Lutak Dock.
In an email, company president Jason Davis, disputes the borough’s reasoning behind refusing to pay a mid-April $2.8 million invoice, and lays out a timeline of communication between the borough, its advisors and the company.
Mayor Tom Morphet said he called a special assembly meeting after realizing the company had also given the borough 7 days to respond to its July 10 email.
“You know, ideally we wouldn’t have special meetings but this is a $20 million contract and we’re in a sensitive position with our contractor, so I thought the meeting was warranted,” he said.
Morphet, who got the email along with Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer, assembly member Natalie Dawson and the borough’s consultant on the project R&M Engineering, said there is some dispute over the timeline and assertions that Davis laid out.
Davis did not respond to an email Sunday seeking clarification on his email to the borough.
“I think, you know, we’re getting back into the history of what’s happened here since January and they are providing a history we don’t agree with entirely,” Morphet said.
Ultimately, he said the borough was billed for work it did not authorize the company to do.
“The way this is supposed to work is, they ask us to do something, we ask the federal government to authorize it, they do it and then the federal government sends the money,” he said. “They’re not supposed to be acting without authorization.”
Monday’s meeting calls for a discussion on the Lutak Dock but could also go into executive session. There is time set aside for public comment, but Morphet said that could happen after members of the assembly meet privately with its attorney to discuss Turnagain Marine’s latest communication.
“We’ll probably take public comments after we get our business done,” he said.
Going in that order means anyone who wants to weigh-in on this latest issue with the Lutak Dock must wait outside of assembly chambers or on Zoom for an indeterminate amount of time while the assembly conducts its executive session.
When asked about whether going in that order makes it more difficult for people to weigh-in meaningfully on assembly business, Morphet said he is a big advocate for public comment but because the assembly has a lot of technical information to absorb quickly, he wants to “keep them on task and fresh.”
“It has helped in the past for us to get right into business and do public comment at the end of the meeting,” he said. “Typically a public comment period can add a couple of hours to a meeting.”
It’s not clear what consequences there may be if the assembly does not respond within the 7-day deadline Turnagain Marine set for a response.
Borough Manager Annette Kreitzer wrote in an email that part of the reason for the special assembly meeting is to understand what consequences there may be to missing the deadline.
“The initial response that I’ve seen [from the borough’s lawyers] is that it is not sufficient time to review what Turnagain has provided,” she wrote.